www.irishtimes.com

Una Mullally

Society, life and culture on the edge

The Richter Collective label to close in December 2012

One of the finest independent labels in the land has announced that it will be wound up by the end of this year. The Richter Collective, which released records by Adebisi Shank, And So I Watch You From Afar, Not …

Una Mullally

Una

Wed, Jun 6, 2012, 15:31

One of the finest independent labels in the land has announced that it will be wound up by the end of this year. The Richter Collective, which released records by Adebisi Shank, And So I Watch You From Afar, Not Squares, The Redneck Manifesto, Bats, Enemies, Squarehead, Worrier, Jogging, The Vinny Club, Hands Up Who Wants To Die and The Continuous Battle of Order, outlined their reasons for shutting up shop in a press release emailed this afternoon, which is posted below.

This closure can definitely be filed under “a sad day for independent music in Ireland”, as the Richter Collective has been at the forefront of independent music here – particularly instrumental rock music – for the past four years, releasing albums and tracks, hosting live shows, and promoting homegrown bands, along with providing a platform for a growing stable of critically acclaimed, if ultimately niche, acts.

Frequently lauded as an example of the healthy music scene in Ireland and commended for their work with innovative bands, an independent philosophy, international hook ups with other labels, and general good humour, Richter Collective will certainly be missed from the music scene, not least by the bands themselves.

Best of luck to whatever adventures the RC team embark upon in the future, and long may the music they helped facilitate reign.

Full press release from the label:

It is with mixed emotion that we are announcing The Richter Collective will be coming to a close at the end of this year, December 2012. We are regretful that we will be losing the label but also very optimistic and excited about the future. The reasons for this are numerous and to go into in great detail would take far too long.

In a nutshell it’s a decision that’s part based on money and part based on not wanting to compromise on the vision we had for the label when we started. It’s become increasingly difficult to apply new ideas within the constructs of a “traditional label” model and our label still falls within that remit. Instead of being doom and gloom about this decision we would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped us along our journey, especially the amazing bands and artists we have had the pleasure to work with.

We started this label a mere four years ago and have had the pleasure of releasing over twenty seven amazing pieces of work. The support that we have had in terms of coverage has been far beyond any expectation we ever had when we set the label up. We managed to get our releases into stores all around Europe, the US and Asia and (hopefully) helped the acts we worked with reach new audiences around the world. We came from a hobby label background and tried to build a new label to rival the larger Independents in term of reach and scale and we are so proud of what we’ve achieved in the last few years on a relatively small budget.

Now, it’s time to move on for both of us, we started the label at a time when there weren’t many other options for Irish acts in terms of independent labels but now there are many amazing new independents in this country and it’s such a great time for new music. We will continue to be involved in independent music in Ireland and hope to work on some exciting new projects in the future. For now we will continue to operate “as normal” and sell off all remaining stock we hold. We are planning a big Xmas bash for the end of year and have a few more bits and pieces up our sleeves. If you have been thinking of buying any of our music in the past we’re still open for business at www.richtercollective.com and http://richtercollective.bandcamp.com

We hope you continue to support all of the acts we have worked with in future projects.

Thanks!

RC

Why are you telling us now?

Mainly because we have had to tell bands and other companies we work with. Information like this tends to spread quite quickly so we want to assure everyone we will be remaining in business until the end of the year to tie up all loose ends.

Friends of Richter

We made a promise to the friends of Richter to deliver a subscription based package for one year and we aim to keep that promise , we will deliver all that was promised in this package for the remainder of the year.

Debtors

Any outstanding debts will be honoured by the company. We would never walk away from responsibilities to other companies especially as all the companies we deal with are in the independent music sector and even small changes can affect their business in a massive way. Our debts are relatively small but it will take us until the end of the calendar year to pay these off.

The Releases

We are in talks with all our bands at the minute but we intend to try to make all scheduled releases work and help our bands get these releases out with as little disruption as possible.